Time for Nawaz Sharif to take charge, says daily

Islamabad: Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has been in office for five months, and it was time for him to take charge on "enormously complicated" issues like militant threats, Afghanistan and India, a Pakistani daily said on Sunday.

The Dawn said in an editorial that though Gen. Raheel Sharif was appointed chief of the Pakistan Army this month, he may take time to settle down. And Nawaz Sharif "needs to examine and reset" the state's policies.

"The new army chief will possibly take longer to turn to matters of the army's approach to national security and its positions on key foreign relations. But Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has been in office for five months now. And it is time for him to step up and truly take charge," the daily said.

"There are at least four areas in which Mr. (Nawaz) Sharif needs to examine and reset the state's policies -- the domestic militant threat, Balochistan, Afghanistan and India."

"Each of those issues is enormously complicated in its own right, before the civil-military angle is even factored in."

The daily said that on matters related to Afghanistan and India and Balochistan, the government "is on the right track - though perhaps only to the extent of words".

"Non-interference in Afghanistan, normalisation of ties with India and a political approach to dealing with Baloch separatists are all sound policies," it said. But "at some point, Sharif will have to lead from the front".